FCC nominee Gigi Sohn
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee held its third confirmation hearing in 15 months on the nomination of Gigi Sohn for Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The reason why Sohn, who is President Joe Biden‘s choice to fill the fifth FCC Commissioner slot to give the Democrats a 3-2 majority, has not yet been confirmed to her post (or even advanced to a Senate vote) is that apparently all Senate Republicans and a few conservative Senate Democrats oppose her on various grounds:
–First, Senate Republicans would likely oppose any of President Biden’s FCC nominees, in order to maintain this crucial agency at its current gridlocked state of two Democratic and two Republican Commissioners, preventing Biden and the Democrats from doing the business of the American people.
–Second, Sohn is considered to be a Democratic or liberal activist in media matters. Her extensive communications background includes a previous position as counselor to the FCC Chairman under President Barack Obama, as well as Executive Director of the Media Access Project, a public interest group that sought to increase public (including minority) access to and influence over the airwaves. One crucial item Sohn supports, which is an important part of the Democratic agenda, is “net neutrality,” the idea that companies should not be able to speed up, slow down or herd online users into affiliated corners of the internet. In 2015, during Barack Obama’s presidency, the Democratic majority FCC approved net neutrality rules. However, just a year later, Donald Trump‘s Republican majority FCC repealed the rules.
–Third, Sohn is openly gay, and indeed is married with a child. Republican hostility to the LGBTQ community is well-documented, and is now a big part of the GOP brand. This factor alone might be enough for Republican Senators, under pressure from right wing groups, to vote against Sohn. In short, Sohn is a highly visible target for Republicans in a highly visible sector of American business and culture.
As to the issue of President Biden getting a three to two Democratic majority on the FCC, the agency’s structure is designed to have a maximum (majority) of three out of the five Commissioners from the party of the U.S. president, with the intent that the president gets to pursue his agenda as best as he can. A well-known example is Mark Fowler, who was confirmed as Ronald Reagan‘s FCC Chairman in 1981, less than 90 days after Reagan took office. Fowler was as political an FCC appointee as there could be, with his background as counsel to Ronald Reagan’s 1976 and 1980 presidential campaigns, and head of the group on Reagan’s presidential transition team with responsibility over communications issues. Not surprisingly, as FCC Chairman, Fowler pursued Reagan’s right wing “deregulatory” agenda, removing FCC protections and approving mergers among large media companies. None of this FCC history, of course, matters to Senate Republicans when a Democratic president puts forth a nomination. Thus, Sohn’s confirmation vote, if she receives one, is expected to be extremely close.
Gigi Sohn is more than qualified to be an FCC Commissioner, and she deserves the job. With a 51-49 majority in the Senate, the Democrats do not need any Republican votes to confirm Sohn, and hopefully Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer can round up the necessary votes. However, if the Democrats can’t get those 51 or at least 50 votes (allowing Vice President Kamala Harris to cast the tie-breaking vote for confirmation), then it’s time to jettison Sohn’s nomination and quickly choose another Democratic nominee who has a greater chance of being confirmed. After more than half of President Biden’s first term already gone, we have no more time to spare.
Photo by Joel Sage, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/b1BdBD
